THE NEW YORKER, JUNE 23, 2014
23
AB VE B YO D
(Park Avenue Armory, Park Ave.
at 66th St. 212-933-5812. Through
June 22.)
Our New Girl
Nancy Harris's play begins with a
schoolboy rubbing peroxide on his
ear and preparing to go the full Van
Gogh. But the drama never delivers
on that Grand Guignol premise,
subsiding instead into a more familiar
narrative about contemporary family
life. Somewhere in London, Richard
(C. J. Wilson), a crusading doctor,
and Hazel (Mary McCann), a former
high- lying lawyer, await the birth o
a second child, even as they tend to
their troubled irstborn. To help the
overstressed Hazel, Richard hires an
Irish nanny (Lisa Joyce), and soon
the nuclear family is in meltdown.
The director, Gaye Taylor Upchurch,
can't seem to decide whether she'd
prefer to stage a lurid thriller or
a serious psychological drama.
Like Hazel, she tries to have it all,
unsuccessfully. Still, McCann is af-
fecting as a mother disturbed by her
child. "Sometimes we have to take
care o things we're frightened of,"
she says. (Atlantic Stage 2, at 330
W. 16th St. 866-811-4111.)
The Sonic Life of a
Giant Tortoise
In their waking lives, a twenty-
something guy (Moses Villarama)
and his girlfriend (Susannah Flood)
argue about one thing: she is bored
by the day-to-day stu o life and
wants to travel, and he believes in
the holiness o each moment and is
happy to stay put. Under the direc-
tion o Dan Rothenberg, for the Play
Company, Villarama, Flood, and three
other talented young actors---Rachel
Christopher, Dan Kublick, and Jason
Quarles---who take turns playing
the central character, stand facing
the audience and, for a little more
than an hour, casually, and very
naturally, divulge their thoughts
and feelings. (JACK, 505 1/2 Waverly
Ave., Brooklyn. jackny.org.)
The Village Bike
The British-born playwright Pe-
nelope Skinner's drama, presented
by MCC, is about a woman, Becky
(Greta Gerwig), who is pregnant
and living in the English Midlands
with her husband, John (Jason
Butler Harner), who is having
trouble getting it up because, for
him, it would mean having sex
with their unborn child. Starved
for their former naughty ways,
Becky starts sleeping with Oliver
(Scott Shepherd, the best thing in
the show), and her neediness soon
takes the form o an interest in her
"independence." But Becky isn't
free; she needs a man in order to
see herself. And even then she's a
muddle, as is the play. Part ideol-
ogy, part farce, part boring, neither
the script nor Sam Gold's direction
serves its star very well. Gerwig
overanticipates what the characters
say before they say it, and who
can blame her? Everything they're
talking about sounds as i it were
written by rote. (Lucille Lortel,
121 Christopher St. 212-352-3101.)
When January Feels Like
Summer
For a comedy, Cori Thomas's play
(co-presented by Ensemble Studio
Theatre and Page 73), about ive
very di erent people living in the
same Harlem neighborhood, is
extremely anxiety-provoking. Ishan
(Debargo Sanyal), a charming young
Indian man, takes a job at his sister
Nirmala's deli; at the same time, he
begins transitioning from male to
female, with the help o hormones,
a wig, and a new name, Indira. This
is upsetting enough for Nirmala
(Mahira Kakkar), who, in spite o her
arranged marriage, is still a virgin,
but it gets positively treacherous
when two young locals (Maurice
Williams and J. Mallory McCree)
start a crusade against a neighbor-
hood homosexual and enlist Indira's
help, not realizing that she is still,
in one important way, a man. The
entire cast o this ultimately very
funny and moving play, directed
by Daniella Topol, is topnotch, but
Sanyal is especially riveting as an
overzealous convert to womanhood,
desperate for admiration. (Ensemble
Studio Theatre, 549 W. 52nd St. 866-
811-4111. Through June 22.)
North River Historic
Ship Festival
The days when sailing vessels,
steamships, and ocean liners illed
New York Harbor are long gone, but
there are still a few classic craft that
call these waters home. On June 20-
24, they are gathering at Hudson River
Park's Pier 25, for rides, tours, and
other events. Expected vessels include
the Lehigh Valley Barge No. 79
(built in 1914 and the sole surviving
wooden railway barge o its type still
a loat), the retired New York City
ireboat John J. Harvey (built in 1931
and enlisted for assistance on 9/11),
the former Coast Guard lighthouse
tender Lilac (built in 1933 and the
last remaining steamship in the
Coast Guard leet), and the South
Street Seaport's iron-hulled schooner
Pioneer (built in 1885). (N. Moore
St. at the Hudson River. For more
information, visit nrhss.org.)
Auctions and Antiques
In its inal sale before the summer
recess (June 24), Sotheby's caters
to the tastes o nostalgic baby
boomers in a sale o rock-and-roll
memorabilia that includes a draft o
Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone,"
written on stationary from the Roger
Smith Hotel. (York Ave. at 72nd
St. 212-606-7000.) • The estate o
Huguette Clark---a reclusive New
York heiress who spent her inal
decades in various Manhattan
hospitals while her palatial Fifth
Avenue apartment lay vacant---is
the gift that keeps on giving. Last
month, a Monet "Nymphéas" painting
took in twenty-four million dollars
at Christie's Impressionist evening
sale; this week (June 18), as part o
a dedicated auction, the house o ers
a Stradivarius violin that languished
in a closet o the Clark abode for
a quarter century. The instrument,
known as the Kreutzer, was named
after the French violin virtuoso who
owned and played it for most o his
adult life (and to whom Beethoven
dedicated the most popular o his
violin sonatas). A sale o books and
manuscripts (on June 19) includes
one o the irst microchips ever in-
vented, the design o which brought
Jack Kilby---an electrical engineer at
Texas Instruments---a Nobel Prize
in 2000. (20 Rockefeller Plaza, at
49th St. 212-636-2000.)
Readings and Talks
Brooklyn Brewery
The "War Correspondents at the Brooklyn Brewery" series presents Scott
Anderson, who will talk with the brewery's co-owner Steve Hindy, a for-
mer foreign correspondent. (79 N. 11th St. 718-486-7422. June 17 at 7:30.)
BookCourt
Boris Fishman discusses his début novel, "A Replacement Life," with the
writer Teddy Wayne. (163 Court St., Brooklyn. 718-875-3677. June 18 at 7.)
Powerhouse Arena
The writer Je ery Renard Allen celebrates the publication o his new book,
"Song o the Shank." The novel is based on the story o Thomas Greene Wig-
gins, a sightless, autistic nineteenth-century slave and gifted child pianist, who
became famous as Blind Tom. The musician Genovis Albright will perform
Blind Tom's compositions. (37 Main St., Brooklyn. 718-666-3049. June 19 at 7.)
Strand Book Store
Marc Pastor, a crime-scene investigator in Barcelona and the author o
four novels, leads a night o international crime iction. He'll discuss his
latest work, "Barcelona Shadows," and the craft o crime writing with
Daniel Levine (whose début novel, "Hyde," was recently published) and
Henry Chang (the creator o the detective Jack Yu mystery series, whose
latest is "Death Money"). Joseph Salvatore, a iction writer and the books
editor at The Brooklyn Rail, is the moderator. (Broadway at 12th St. 212-
473-1452. June 23 at 7.)
McNally Jackson Books
The actress Vanessa Redgrave reads from Michele Zackheim's latest novel,
"Last Train to Paris," about a female reporter who works in the City o
Light in the nineteen-thirties. (52 Prince St. 212-274-1160. June 23 at 8.)
Also Notable
Aladdin
New Amsterdam
All the Way
Neil Simon
Beautiful---The Carole
King Musical
Stephen Sondheim
Clown Bar
The Box
A Gentleman's Guide to
Love and Murder
Walter Kerr
Hedwig and the Angry
Inch
Belasco
If/Then
Richard Rodgers
Lady Day at Emerson's
Bar & Grill
Circle in the Square
Matilda the Musical
Shubert
Les Misérables
Imperial
Much Ado About Nothing
Delacorte
Of Mice and Men
Longacre
The Realistic Joneses
Lyceum
Violet
American Airlines Theatre
When We Were Young and
Unafraid
City Center Stage I
The Who & the What
Claire Tow